Uncategorized

Blackwood releases new album: Lost and Found

Blackwood released their first album LOST AND FOUND on September 24th, 2021! Available on all download and streaming sites. Support the artists here by ordering a physical copy or digital download on bandcamp.

Lost and Found is Peter-Anthony Togni and Jeff Reilly’s collection of compositions inspired by subjects ranging from the power of dreams, the birth of children and grandchildren, the natural world and medieval plainchant. They also include a transcendent take on the Miles Davis classic Blue in Green.

Recorded in the pristine acoustics and isolated environment of Trinity St-Stephen’s church in the small town of Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada — the album has rich and inviting sonic atmosphere.

Watch Blackwood perform the title track to Lost and Found:

October 20 2021 · Uncategorized

Extreme Unction

Christos Hatzis: Extreme Unction
Jeff Reilly, bass clarinet
Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra conducted by Kevin Mallon

A featured work on my upcoming release To Dream of Silence is a work by the Canadian composer Christos Hatzis: Extreme Unction. Set for solo bass clarinet and string orchestra, it is a powerful depiction of both the struggles against, and the final acceptance of the inevitability of death. The recurring theme that runs through this entire release is the power of the heart as an engine of transformation. In To Dream of Silence you hear the heart of the machinery of a vast basement, the pounding of a heart recovering from terror, a bursting heart upon witnessing indescribable beauty, the rich heart of our home and finally in Christos’ work we hear a heart beating out the final moments of life. Death, as this brilliant work by Christos shows us, is the ultimate transformation.

LISTEN TO A PREVIEW OF EXTREME UNCTION HERE

Extreme Unction is now available for download on bandcamp as an individual track.  jeffreilly.bandcamp.com

All tracks available on all download and streaming sites (Itunes, Spotify etc.. ) on September 29th

Christos Hatzis wrote this work using recordings of my improvisations that he then re-worked and orchestrated. Here is a letter I sent to Christos when I was preparing this work for the performance and recording of this piece last June:

“I have fallen in love with your piece in a truly complex way. It’s not all joy and light I have to tell you. Truth be told I am finding it hard to articulate what it is like to realize a piece that is so much me but also so much you. It is like we have had a strange musical baby together that has its own life that in turn describes death in such a chaotic, but nuanced expression. Hard, but beautiful. Hard to be me when my expression is chopped up, reset, orchestrated and returned with greater depth and power than any individual gesture could possibly express. My feelings around it are much deeper and more realized than they were in the Toronto performance. Maybe it’s the amount of time I have spent on it this time around, as now I certainly feel that I have wrestled this anguished beast into technical submission, while last time I think it was beyond my grasp…. but also I think it has to do with turning 60 – it changes you somehow. I hope you will hear all this in my performance, it certainly is my intention.”

Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra players:

First violins: Manuela Milani, Martine Dubé, Sara Mastrangelo, Geneviève Petit
Second violins: Solange Tremblay, Marjolaine Lambert, Maria Nenoiu,Brigitte Amyot
Violas: Catherine Ferreira, Sonya Probst
Cellos: Julian Armour, Thaddeus Morden
Bass: John Geggie

Conducted by Kevin Mallon
www.thirteenstrings.ca

September 19 2017 · Uncategorized

Blackwood plays Miles Davis’ Blue in Green

One of my favourite pieces performed with my favourite musical partner.

May 25 2017 · Uncategorized | Upcoming Performances

Responsio in Halifax on April 18th

RESPONSIO by Peter-Anthony Togni
Monday, April 18th 2016
A special one night only performance with the original performers.

Tickets available HERE from Ticket Halifax   or call 902 422 6278

Fort Massey United Church
5303 Tobin St
Halifax, NS B3H 1S3

With:

Jeff Reilly, Bass Clarinet
Suzie LeBlanc – soprano
Andrea Ludwig – mezzo soprano
Charles Daniels – tenor
John Potter – tenor

Nominated for a Juno Award in 2016 as well as the winner of the 2014 Lieutenant Governor’s Masterworks Award, RESPONSIO is Peter-Anthony Togni`s breathtakingly beautiful meditation on Guillaume de Machat’s medieval masterpiece the Messe de Nostre Dame.  Featuring a bass clarinet (Jeff Reilly) that soars over the timeless sonorities of a world class vocal quartet, RESPONSIO is a deep reflection on over 1,000 years of spiritual music making.

This is a one night only event, a rare opportunity to experience this work with the original world class performers.

RESPONSIO was released internationally in September of 2015 on the Montreal based ATMA classique label. CDs will be available for purchase at the concert.

RESPONSIO will also be performed in April and May as follows:

Montreal on April 20th please go here.
Calgary on May 7th with Luminous Voices

March 21 2016 · Responsio news | Uncategorized | Upcoming Performances

The Sanctuary Trio performs music from ESTUARY

On October 6th and 7th, 2015   Tickets can be purchased here

The long awaited release by the Halifax based trio Sanctuary is here. ESTUARY was released internationally on Friday, September 25th. The third CD from this truly unique trio of pipe organ, cello and bass clarinet reflects 17 years of refinement and development.

Ranging from the full, suspended sound of Peter-Anthony Togni’s “Nuer Prayer”, through the austere beauty of Jeff Reilly’s “Creatures of Infinite Grace” to the driving rhythms of Christoph Both’s “Sonora”, ESTUARY is a deep-listening dive into the musical minds of these three highly experienced musicians.

Recorded by Rod Sneddon, produced by Jeff Reilly and mastered by Britain’s renowned mastering engineer Simon Heyworth, ESTUARY presents a pristine sound with incredible depth and resonance.

For a free track download please go here.  The trio will perform tracks from ESTUARY in 2 concerts, one in Halifax and the other in Wolfville, NS on October 6th and 7th:

Tuesday, October 6th at 7:30 pm
Fort Massey United Church
5303 Tobin St. Halifax, NS

Wednesday, October 7th at 7:30 pm
Wolfville Baptist Church
487 Main St. Wolfville, NS

Tickets are 15/10 at the door and also can be purchased on-line for a reduced rate here.

Sanctuary CD cover ony

September 22 2015 · Uncategorized | Upcoming Performances

Responsio: 1,000 years of music

Here is a beautiful little promo video about Responsio, a new work for bass clarinet and vocal quartet by Peter-Anthony Togni.  It’s based on the 14th century masterpiece the “Messe de Nostre Dame” by Guillaume de Machaut. This stunning piece will be released on the Montreal based label  ATMA Classique on Sept. 11th, 2015 and toured nationally in April and May of 2016..

March 5 2015 · Responsio news | Uncategorized

Blackwood

Togni & Reilly MG_2842BW cropped copy

Blackwood is the new duo of Peter-Anthony Togni on piano and Jeff Reilly, bass clarinet.  For videos and info on Blackwood go here.

January 17 2015 · Uncategorized

Responsio wins NS Masterworks award

RESPONSIO by Peter-Anthony Togni wins the $25,000.00 2014 Masterwork Award.

Congratulations to Peter for this incredible acknowledgement of what is truly an extensive and beautiful masterwork combining the ancient and the new. Responsio is a  contemporary response to Guillaume de Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame and it features:

Jeff Reilly – bass clarinet
Suzie Leblanc – soprano
Andrea Ludwig – mezzo soprano
Charles Daniels – tenor
John Potter – tenor

Responsio will be released in the fall of 2015.

For more info, and to watch and listen to Responsio go here. 

November 21 2014 · Responsio news | Uncategorized

Some great CBC videos I produced with Tom Allen for CBC music

Over the past year I have had the chance to produce two videos with CBC Radio 2’s Tom Allen. Have a look at these two projects. The first is a look at the origins of the Star Trek theme, and its surprising origins in musical history:

 

The second, this one here, which is trending really well out there, shows us the history of the song of death…. yes, death has a theme song. Check it out:

We’ll be producing more of these in the months to come for CBC music. I’ll keep posting them here.

September 11 2014 · Uncategorized

Great visit to the Sound Symposium 2014

The Sound Symposium is one of Canada’s best kept secrets. Over a week of exploratory, innovative, experimental and truly audacious music performed by musicians with reputations ranging from the extremely local to the completely international. You can brush with fame and real discovery in the same concert, I love it.  Steven Naylor and I had a great experience at this year’s symposium playing as a duo.   One of the nicest things anyone has said about anything I have done was said by Michelle Bush in a blog review of this set, she said:  “I am a bit at a loss for words with this one. It was just beautiful, perfect and such a great contrast to the slapstick nature of the improv musical (that proceeded us). These two know how to listen, to bring about the quiet moments, the slow, the smallest sounds, to make an audience listen to and get so wrapped up in these without even thinking about it.”

You can read the complete review here.

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Jeff Reilly and Steven Naylor at the 2014 St. John’s Sound Symposium

September 11 2014 · Uncategorized

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